According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS) a spokesman for the Hurriyat forum in a statement issued in Srinagar deplored that even holding peaceful candle light vigil and sit-in had become an eye-sore for the rulers.

He said that it was highly condemnable that the people including political leaders and activists taking part in Human Rights Week (being observed from December 3 to December 9) were arrested and lodged in jails and police stations.      The spokesman said that the occupation authorities’ action of disallowing peaceful protests by using military might deserved strong condemnation.

Indian forces’ personnel are scuttling every single programmed of the resistance leadership and trade bodies aimed at highlighting the grave human rights situation in the occupied territory, he said.

The forum spokesman denounced the arrest of Hurriyat leader Hilal Ahmed War, Kashmir Economic Alliance Co-Chairman Farooq Ahmed Dar, Vice Chairman Aijaz Ahmed Shahdhar and others.

He said that those claiming to be the champions of freedom of speech and democracy were themselves turning out to be the worst ever violators of the people’s rights as every single voice raised to highlight the pain and miseries of the Kashmiri people was suppressed through use of brute force.

The spokesman said that ahead of the World Human Rights Day (December 10) all top resistance leaders including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik besides scores of Hurriyat activists had been caged either in their homes or in jails and police lockups which was nothing but sheer political vengeance.

He pointed out that the bloodshed and the prevailing instability in occupied Kashmir were only because of the lingering Kashmir dispute and time was ripe for India to settle it once and for all.

He urged the world community to put pressure on New Delhi to stop oppression and atrocities on the people of occupied Kashmir.